Comprehensive review of cooling and heating degree days characteristics over Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

This paper presents the annual and seasonal cooling (CDD) and heating (HDD) degree day values over Saudi Arabia by utilizing the long-term daily average temperatures from 38 meteorological stations. The values of CDDs and HDDs have been calculated for a base temperature of 18.3 °C. The maximum annual mean CDDs of 7549 were observed at Makkah while the minimum of 3132 at Abha. On the other hand the maximum HDDs of 985 were found in Guriat and minimum of 0 at Gizan, Jeddah, Rabigh, Makkah, Sabya, Sharourah, Wejh and Yanbu. The annual and seasonal values of CDD and HDD provided in this paper could be used to estimate the fuel or energy requirement for cooling or heating of buildings in respective areas both on annual and seasonal bases.